J.R. VanderWall has a flash for dramatic exits. It seems as he says goodbye to a team, he likes to finish on top. In High School he played in the state championship game to claim Player of the Year honors later that evening. His final days in Varsity polo at UMass were spent at the NCAA Final Four in Stanford where a photographer snapped a photo of VanderWall blocking olympian Tony Azevedo on a breakaway, which would later appear in a full size spread in ESPN The Magazine. Last week, VanderWall was named 2003's CWPA Player of The Year following the Lakers 5th place finish at the CWPA National Championships in Texas this past November.

"This is such an honor and all my teammates should feel extremely proud because there is no way I could've played like this without my teammates and coaches. You all deserve a piece of this award to be completely honest and I wish I could share it with you guys as a team award," said VanderWall when reached for comment in his Florida estate.

Pat Lowman was also selected to the 3rd Team of the CWPA's All-American team. Lowman and VanderWall were key cogs for the Laker machine in the past two seasons, which saw Grand Valley win Great Lakes Division titles.